Evolutionary origin of human and primate malarias: evidence from the circumsporozoite protein gene |
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Authors: | Escalante AA; Barrio E; Ayala FJ |
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Institution: | Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine 92717, USA. |
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Abstract: | We have analyzed the conserved regions of the gene coding for the
circumsporozoite protein (CSP) in 12 species of Plasmodium, the malaria
parasite. The closest evolutionary relative of P. falciparum, the agent of
malignant human malaria, is P. reichenowi, a chimpanzee parasite. This is
consistent with the hypothesis that P. falciparum is an ancient human
parasite, associated with humans since the divergence of the hominids from
their closest hominoid relatives. Three other human Plasmodium species are
each genetically indistinguishable from species parasitic to nonhuman
primates; that is, for the DNA sequences included in our analysis, the
differences between species are not greater than the differences between
strains of the human species. The human P. malariae is indistinguishable
from P. brasilianum, and P. vivax is indistinguishable from P. simium; P.
brasilianum and P. simium are parasitic to New World monkeys. The human P.
vivax-like is indistinguishable from P. simiovale, a parasite of Old World
macaques. We conjecture that P. malariae, P. vivax, and P. vivax-like are
evolutionarily recent human parasites, the first two at least acquired only
within the last several thousand years, and perhaps within the last few
hundred years, after the expansion of human populations in South America
following the European colonizations. We estimate the rate of evolution of
the conserved regions of the CSP gene as 2.46 x 10(-9) per site per year.
The divergence between the P. falciparum and P. reichenowi lineages is
accordingly dated 8.9 Myr ago. The divergence between the three lineages
leading to the human parasites is very ancient, about 100 Myr old between
P. malariae and P. vivax (and P. vivax-like) and about 165 Myr old between
P. falciparum and the other two.
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